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BREAKING: Wike reduced payment for son’s Abuja land from N200million to N2million – Kingibe
More worms are still crawling out from the can opened against Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who is being accused of massive corruption in the allocation of lands in Abuja, and other areas, even with him denying any wrongdoing.
Last month, the Minister was accused of allocating an handsome 2,000 hectres of land to his son, in the guise of using it for agricultural purposes, an allegation he flatly denied during an interview with some major television networks in the country, saying there were no area in the federal capital with such expanse of land.
But digging in, on Monday, Ireti Kingibe, Senator representing the FCT at the National Assembly, upped the ante from another level, saying even the Federal Capital Development Authority, the body in charge of deal, was shortchanged in terms of payment for the land.
A guest of Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS television network, Kingibe, who has been waging a long-drawn battle with the Minister over what she resented as his impunity and scant regard for the rule of law, told her host that she had evidence of his activities of sleaze.
One of such evidences, the Senator, one in the only four women in the current 10th
National Assembly, claimed, was that the Minister, withing 48 hours, waived more than N180million from the amount the same son was supposed to pay from the land allocated to him, from over N200million to a paltry N2million, a development she found morally reprehensible.
Hear her: “What I’m trying to say is that I have documents to show that when Minister Wike allocated lands to his son – acres of lands, and as he says, his son is entitled to land, no problem, but the bills – I have the documents – of the N200million that you need to pay, a N100million there that you need to pay, they wrote to him that he should give a waiver to reduce it and within 48 hours you’re going from N200million to N2million.
“It is illegal. At the very least, it is unfair, it is unfair, it is unethical, at the very least. And these things, I’m a civil engineer, I’m a fact person. I wouldn’t come here without having the facts and the documents.”
“I’m definitely not afraid of him and I didn’t say he should be afraid of me. I’m just saying that he should be aware that most things he does, I’ll know. I’m going to take those documents and go to the body, which is equivalent to the state assembly and insist that that assembly does something.
“The President from whom he derives his powers, goes back to the National Assembly for approval of everything and Wike who is deriving powers from him does not go to the National Assembly, except budget. TSA (Treasury Single Account), all his IGR (Internally Generated Revenues), what has he done with it? He never accounted for anything – how are the moneys spent – nothing!
“You cannot get more powers than the person from whom you’re deriving your powers. So, it is now time for more serious oversight of the Minister. Not just me, but the whole body. Some, people have said, don’t shout, don’t complain. But if I cannot speak, then I might as well just resigned my seat. That’s the way I see it.
“The other day, I was just coming back – I went to an oversight in Sokoto and on my way back, a black jeep was following me almost all the way home and I told my driver when he pointed it out – I said what’s the problem, because it was in the night – and he said a black car has been following us – I said from when and he said since we left the airport and I said, don’t go home, go to the busier Gana Street and after a while I asked him to park and the jeep passed.
“But the truth is that I’m a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I have rights and I don’t think that even with Wike’s impunity that he would try to harm me for saying you cannot do ABCD! I’m not afraid of anybody. It’s God who protects. I have security more than an average person. I know normal people go around and they get home safely.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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